George Paton and the Broncos have dished out a number of contract extensions in the past 18 months.
Now Paton has one of his own.
The Denver general manager agreed to a five-year extension that will keep him atop the Broncos’ front office for years to come. The team announced the agreement, which runs through the 2030 season, on Friday morning.
“We are pleased to announce a new five-year contract for George Paton that reflects our confidence in his leadership, vision and the overall direction of our team,” CEO and owner Greg Penner said in a statement announcing the deal. “As our general manager, George has demonstrated a strong commitment toward building a winning roster while forming a collaborative and supportive partnership with Sean Payton.
“I’ve enjoyed working with George over the last four seasons and appreciate the alignment we share in positioning the Broncos for sustained success.”
Paton was originally hired as the Broncos’ GM in January 2021 on a six-year deal, after rising through front-office ranks through years in Minnesota and serving nine season as the Vikings’ assistant general manager. 2026 would’ve brought the final season of his contract in Denver. And throughout the offseason, owner Penner made it clear that he wanted Paton running his scouting department long term.
Really, for the past 12 months or more, this deal has been one Penner was clearly going to make at some point before the 2026 season. He said as much in late March at the NFL’s spring meetings in Arizona.
“We want to have George here long term,” Penner said then. “He’s been a terrific partner for (head coach Sean Payton) and how they work together. I’m sure we’ll get that sorted out.”
A source with knowledge of the process told The Post that ownership “hammered out” the new deal with Paton over the past two weeks after the NFL Draft concluded, and that both Paton and Denver wanted to focus on the draft before intensifying conversations about the contract.
Due to his past ties with Minnesota and expiring deal, Paton was vaguely connected to the Vikings’ open general manager job since the organization fired previous GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in late January. An NFL source with direct knowledge of the process told The Post that Minnesota had definite internal interest in bringing Paton back as their general manager.
Paton, though, was never truly in danger of landing anywhere else and wanted to be back in Denver.
“It’ll happen when it happens,” Paton said of a new deal, back in February. “I’m not too worried about it.”
The Broncos’ ‘yin and the yang’
That relationship with Payton has proved key to Paton’s staying power in Denver, as both those inside and outside the Broncos’ building privately worried that Paton’s days might be numbered once the Broncos traded for the former Super Bowl-winning head coach in early 2023. Payton, of course, wields significant organizational influence and has long held a reputation for hand-picking those he trusts to surround him. And their partnership at Denver’s mast started off on shaky ground, with Paton coming off a rocky first two seasons with the Broncos.
The general manager excelled in the draft early in his Broncos tenure, landing future All-Pros Pat Surtain II and Quinn Meinerz, plus seventh-rounder Jonathon Cooper in 2021. A year later, though, Paton missed on the hire of first-time head coach Nathaniel Hackett and then took a huge swing in trade capital and dollars to acquire quarterback Russell Wilson — just as Penner and the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group finalized their purchase of the franchise.
The Broncos fired Hackett late in a 5-12 season in 2022. And after two disappointing seasons as the Broncos’ starting QB, Denver ate a then-record $85 million in dead cap charges just to cut ties with Wilson and reset. By the end of the 2023 season, despite a promising foundation under Payton, Paton was not particularly popular in Denver.
“You grow,” Paton told The Post at the NFL combine in February, for a previous story diving into his tenure in Denver. “You grow from the experiences, some of the decisions, maybe, you made. You grow from some of the good decisions, bad decisions. And I think that helps you go through the tough times.
“I mean, I never flinched. I never was — always figured we would turn it around. And we did. And I’m not surprised. And it’s not about me.”
That last point, too, is vital to the Broncos’ renaissance and stability with the Payton-Paton duo across the last two seasons.
“They’re complementary with each other in terms of their personalities,” a source with knowledge of the Broncos’ building previously told The Post. “Like, you have the (expletive) tornado — which is Sean — and then you have George, which is just this, like, calm. Itap like the yin and the yang, almost.”
They’ve found alignment, too, in a shared love of scouting and player evaluation, with a demonstrated knowledge of each other’s preferred player profiles: high-trait, high-character, high-IQ, tough. In their first offseason together in 2023, they landed a future All-Pro returner in Marvin Mims Jr. and steady CB2 in Riley Moss in the draft, and signed foundational pieces at the lines of scrimmage in defensive lineman Zach Allen, right tackle Mike McGlinchey, and left guard Ben Powers. They’ve since largely trimmed expensive and underperforming veterans from the locker room in favor of rookie-deal contributors and solid market-value pieces — and hit on their franchise quarterback in Bo Nix in the first round of 2024’s draft.
Since 2024, too, Paton has extended a whopping 14 Broncos on long-term (three years or more) deals, drawing generally high marks from players and agents for his handling of contract negotiations. Players graded Paton as an “A” on the NFLPA’s 2026 team-by-team survey, . In March, returning to a trade that he’d poked around on since the 2025 trade deadline, Paton swung a first and a third-round pick to the Dolphins for star receiver Jaylen Waddle, elevating the Broncos’ offense coming off a 15-2 season and berth in the AFC Championship Game.
Paton and Payton have become so publicly buddy-buddy, too, that Payton said at the combine he’d already advocated to Penner for a new deal for the general manager.
“Itap overdue,” Payton said then. “I say that respectfully to the process, but he and I have a great working relationship. So my job wouldn’t be as fun or as exciting if he wasn’t a part of it. That should be something that gets handled quickly.”
It was officially handled, indeed, a little over two months later. And Paton’s now entrenched as the Broncos’ primary front-office decision-maker for years to come, as Denver attempts to leap into a wide-open Super Bowl window.
